'House' postmortem: Dissecting the finale

WARNING: Stop reading if you have not watched last night’s episode of House. I mean it. Everyone else, onward and downward…

Deep breaths, Huddy fans. Deep breaths.

Among the many bombshells dropped in Monday’s House season finale was the discovery that last week’s massively hyped-by-me hookup between House and Cuddy, um, Never. Actually. Happened.

Deeeeeeep breaths.

It was nothing more than a figment of House’s Vicodin-soaked, Kutner-grievin’, Amber-obsessed imagination.

Deeeeeeeeeeeeeep breaths.

Feeling a little duped, eh? Join the club. Much like you, I figured there’d be a twist, but I honestly didn’t think it would be of the hallucinatory variety. (I was only recently tipped off about this development, hence the vague warning I included in Ask Ausiello.) Of course, looking back, the signs were there. Series creator David Shore was always very careful to qualify his comments about Huddysex. Take a look:

"Yes, we have figured out the details surrounding Huddy having sex," Shore told us last January, before adding, "It definitely won’t be what people expect. We have to do things our way, the House way. We wouldn’t want to have the characters do anything out of character."

Two months later, Shore was equally as cagey about the impending romp. "I really don’t want to go into the particulars of [them hooking up] because we have found a really cool way to do it,and I don’t want to spoil it. But I will confirm that we are taking things forward [with them]."

Bottom line: Technically, Shore didn’t lie. But he was playing me us a little. (BTW, both Shore and exec producer Katie Jacobs declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Other major developments in last night’s finale and the questions they raised:

• Chase and Cameron got hitched! Will it last? Will it lead to more screen time for the underused docs next season? Will Jesse Spencer make good on his (presumably tongue-in-cheek) threat to walk? (Nope to that last one; a rep for the actor confirms he’ll be back next season as a series regular.)

• Kutner came back to life… in House’s head! Did Obama have to sign off on the cameo?

• As we suspected,a downward spiralingHouse checked into a psychiatric/rehab facility! How long will he stay there? Might he bump into Wilson’s brother while he’s there? Will he pass the time by having more imaginary sex with Cuddy?

So many questions, so much time to ponder them in the comments section below (four months to be exact.) And while you’re down there, tell me what you thought of the finale. Love it? Hate it? Out for blood? Start spillin’!

thank you god whom i don’t believe in!
and here i was ready to stop watching after this season…phew, guess i can put that idea aside for now.
seriously, house checking into the nut house seems much more realistic than that “i always wanna kiss you” stuff which to me always seemed like something that guy would never say. TO ANYONE except maybe his mirror.

See, now I was bummed the sex was fake. And the “It was all a dream” was used before in season 2.
That said? This was an awesome season finale, and I was literally saying “Oh my God” for the last 10 minutes there. Fantastic ending, can’t wait to see what they do next season.

hallucinations…gotta love em!!!
on the other hand (and i can’t believe i’m gonna say this as a house/wilson kinda fan) i think shore is a bit cowardly with that. just decide on a couple you want to pursue and do it. hallucinations are just another way to keep every door open.
anyway, still love the fact that it was all in his head. yeah!